Childhood's End

The Overlords — an administering intelligence that ends want, crime and war.

A golden age. Everyone is comfortable, educated, and free to do as they like. Clarke's own verdict is that almost nothing significant gets made: the arts stagnate, and a colony has to be founded by people who deliberately opt out in order to produce anything at all.

Enforced idleness — Everything is provided, so nothing is left to do — and that turns out to be unbearable.

Written in 1953 and ranked #51 on the Goodreads list — higher than almost everything else in this catalogue. The leisure-decay argument was made early, prominently, and then largely ignored.